Portholes ready for paint

After the glue was left over night to harden I got a surprise next day when removing the clamps and one plate fell off. After checking that the other five plates were rock solid, I took a little extra thick layer of glue and fixed it again. While waiting for the glue to harden I continued to drill up the holes for the other portholes and then grind off to correct size with a small Dremel milling head.

When grinding with machinery it is very important to be steady and don’t have to much “help” around.

In order to avoid extensive measuring I made a small gauge which I used to check the portholes during grinding. The gauge was made according to the plans I received from Rene van der Velden and Bert Elbel.

During the manufacture I noticed that the original portholes were sligthly longer than the Graupner model and I made my gauge correspondingly.

I also noticed that the placement of portside portholes were slightly offset on Graupners ABS hull, but since I am cutting myself I, made my portholes in correct locations. As a result the Graupner recessed niches needed to be filled where the offset was to large.

After filling and sanding (400 grain) this was the result.

The portholes for the master cabin are now ready for paint and glasses but that needs to wait for the rest of the hull modifications to be finalized.

Portholes owners cabin

Finally I have started the modification to adopt true-to-original appearance. First item to receive my attention is the portholes in the hull. Three portholes on each side of the forward part of the ship

With the kit from Graupner you receive some blue stickers that are supposed to resemble the portholes of the original. I do not understand what made Graupners designer choose pastell blue, if you compare with the original it would have been better to have black stickers.

The ABS hull has recessed niches for the stickers where the portholes are located. My first check was to measure that they were in about correct poistion according to the drawing I have.

When measuring the locations of the portholes I could establish that they are in about correct positions on both starboard and port side. This was a surprize for me since I never believed that a model kit would take such notice about the asymmetric locations, but Graupner has located the portholes asymmetrically corresponding to original. Well done Graupner!

On the original the portholes are painted in the same color as the hull in order to have a surpressed look, this will give the hull a more strict smooth appearance. Some model builders have chosen to use a metallic frame in order to install windows for the portholes.

I have instead chosen to increase the hull thickness to about 4 mm, which correspond to the original sandwich hull thickness of 80 mm. This was made by using the leftover ABS sheet from the deck and prepare six plates which were cut and grinded to get identical sizes (looks better inside the hull). They were then glued to the inside of the hull.

Next step will be to drill and grind the portholes to correspond to original portholes. After painting, the portholes will get proper window glasses from inside, possibly with a white metal frame.

RC radio with computer menus for marine vessels?

Today we see a lot of computersystems with more menu alternatives than ever. But have you seen any which can help us with our model boats or submarines. At least I have only seen systems for airplanes and helicopters. This post will be a gathering of my wishlist for any of the manufacturers to comply with the need for model boats.

Lets start with a main menu where it besides the flying models also would be possible to select different types of boats. This is just an example of what could be presented and needs some more surveys to select correct categories. The main menu should not be limited to planes and boats, lets bring in cars, trucks and wheel loaders as well. They all have their individual need for programming.

For naval models they can be driven by wind, electric or combustion motor, each with individual needs for throttle or sail winch settings. For motor boats you can have many setups for propulsion, ie. 1,2 or 3  propellers, different rudder positions. Depending on which type I have in my vessel I need to be able to compensate the mix between propeller thrust and rudder setting.

A single propeller will tend to push/pull the boat to one side due to the force of rotation (compare with a heli with no tailrotor), this needs to be compensated by rudder angle.

Dual propellers balances the side thrust but here it would be nice to mix the propulsion thrust on left and right motor depending on the steering turning angle. If we go in full speed and would like to make a quick turn and pull rudder full left, then it would be nice if the right motor kept full throttle but the left (inside turn) motor would reduce its throttle.

Some RC radios have naval twin sticks to replace one of the radios sticks. This is great but it would be even better if we also could get further special controls.

I would like to have a turning knob with maybe 16 fix positions that were marked 1…16. These positions could then be programmable for light or other on/off  functions. In my model I would then have a corresponding reciever where I could connect my light bulbs to a set of terminals. For instance depending on what type of model I chose in the main menu there are some predefined lightning schemes that could be preset as default. Not all lighting will be applicable for a sailing yacht since it does not have a motor and so on.

Further to above setting possiblities I would like to incorporate some kind of logic programmable sequence. Lets assume I would like to anchor. I would then like to make a small logic program where I could set the seqence of multiple actions to be performed after each other, but activated by a single push on one of the switches on the radio.

This type of freely programmable sequence programs could then be used to make display actions in order to present the model working on the bench. Thereby the models would become more interesting for any viewers passing by watching our efforts with operational scale models.

Who will be the first manufacturer to present this system? I don’t know, but I would be one of the first with an interest in such an radio.